So, the Facebook phone rumors are back. Unnamed sources say the social network is working with HTC on a customized handset that would launch in or after the third quarter of 2012.

Let’s say right up front that is a pretty damn flimsy rumor – the anonymous source is cited in a story from a Taiwan tech blog, DigiTimes, that then turns the singular into a plural in its headline (“HTC, Facebook jointly developing smartphone, say sources”).

Then TechCrunch took that report and turned it into a rumor of something called a Facebook Phone, which could be something quite different than what the DigiTimes story was suggesting: “jointly developing a customized smartphone in cooperation with Facebook.”

Of course, assuming that rumor has even a vague basis in the first place, that could mean a range of things, from “working together to make sure Facebook can be accessed from a special button on the phone” to “making a Nexus One-type branded handset”. And here are four good reasons why the rumor probably isn’t true.

But, for the sake of argument and because, face it, we all love to speculate, let’s entertain the idea that Facebook does have a phone in the works. Would that be a good move?

There could be several justifications for doing so – although I’d argue they’re pretty weak.

For a start, Facebook’s mobile experience isn’t very good. It’s the Web experience ported to mobile. For instance, just along the top toolbar on Facebook’s iPhone app there are four clickable action buttons (Options list, Friends, Messages, Notifications, Sort) that require either very small fingers or pin-point accuracy. Immediately below that, there are three more buttons (Status, Photo, Check In), with each demanding equal finger-pointing accuracy, which is fine for the young and the sober but sucks for the rest of us.

Of course, it’s not just a UI problem – Facebook tries to shoehorn so much data and so many extraneous features into its iPhone app that the whole experience just becomes cluttered and unpleasant. I don’t need to access my various pokes, third-party apps, groups, and lists – most of which I made once and forgot about anyway – in what should really be a stripped-back mobile environment.

This mobile UI weakness helps explain why Mark Zuckerberg was so eager to acquire Instagram, and it might even justify mobile-first Path’s $40 million valuation round. And, at a stretch, it might explain why it would want to build a phone that has a native Facebook app. Perhaps the companies have ways and means to make a built-in Facebook experience amazing. But then, Facebook would still be facing the same problems: too many data hooks in too-limited screen real estate.

The source in the DigiTimes issue speculates that Facebook might be looking to diversify its revenue streams in order to make more money post-IPO, but that seems unlikely. If Facebook has ever had a hardware element in its business model, it has done a good job of distracting our attention. No, Facebook’s model is instead dependent on collecting as much data about us as possible, keeping it locked inside the garden, along with all our networks, and then using that incredible Web or personal information to let brands zap us directly in the brains with their micro-targeted messages, which fool us into believing that Diet Coke is the nectar of the gods.

Let’s think about this at a simpler level. Even if the argument of diversifying revenues made sense or Facebook had the know how to build a great mobile experience: What would be the point of a Facebook phone? Is there anything a Facebook phone could do that no other phone could? Or even something a Facebook phone could do that most other phones can’t? It’s hard to think of a single reason it needs to exist.

At best, it’s not much better than a Ferrari HP laptop or an old-school Pepsi telephone, unless having all your Facebook contacts in your native address book means that much to you. And to me, having all my Facebook “friends” in my address book would be a net negative, because I want neither the visual clutter nor the in-pocket reminder that I somehow friended that dickwad from high school who flushed my head down the toilet on my birthday (New Zealand schools: rough).

So, basic message: branded phones are for suckers. And even if this probably-not-even-real HTC handset didn’t come with a blue skin and a giant thumb icon emblazoned on the back, it would still be just that, a branded phone. Sometimes branding is more than just the stickering.

That said, a Facebook phone might make just as much sense as a “Google Phone,” which is essentially what the Nexus One was. Of course, Google soon saw fit to focus on the operating system instead of the hardware. Now there’s an idea for Facebook… (But, seriously, please, no.)

Update: A commenter has suggested that Facebook might see a phone platform as an opportunity to segment its mobile experience across different sub-apps. Actually, I could kind of see this working. Maybe Facebook envisages a platform on which it has an app for messaging, an app for contacts, an app for photos (hello, Instagram), and an app for the news feed. Maybe Zuckerberg’s vision don’t entail a centralized presence at all.

Facebook has introduced Scrapbook, a new feature that allows parents to share and collect images of their children in one place without requiring them to worry about tagging their kids’ face with each other’s names just to make sure they don’t miss what the other person has posted. [Source: Facebook]

“For all the clumsy rhetorical lip service [former Yahoo News head] Guy Vidra pays to The New Republic’s hallowed intellectual traditions, this is what his vision of a nimble digital news product finally translates into: a vaguely journalistic veneer strategically designed to conceal a rancid interior of ‘elevated’ advertising.”

Indian e-commerce company Flipkart is said to be raising $600 million in its latest bid to compete with Amazon. The company is also said to have garnered a higher valuation with this funding round — quite the feat, considering it was previously valued at around $11.5 billion. [Source: The Economic Times]

Here comes another unicorn: Sprinklr, a New York-based marketing company, has raised $46 million at a $1.17 billion valuation. The funds will be used to help the 700-person company expand its marketing platform. [Source: Fortune]

Curator, the tool Twitter created so the media could find and share tweets with its audience, is now available to the public. Because if there’s anything people wanted to see more of, it’s tweets randomly inserted into blog posts, television spots, and other forms of media. [Source: TechCrunch]

A court in France has decided not to ban Uber’s low-cost services until the country’s highest appeals court, or its supreme court, weigh in on the constitutionality of a new transport law. [Source: The Wall Street Journal]

Tinder is refocusing on its spam-fighting efforts in the wake of reports that movie studios are using the service to promote their movies, scammers are attempting to steal information via the app, and pranksters have created tools that trick heterosexual men into flirting with each other. [Source: The Verge]

Uber offers drivers whose accounts have been deactivated a choice: attend a class that requires them to pass an exam, or take a class that doesn’t. The latter has been informed by Uber employees, and the company has sent thousands of drivers to it, according to a report from BuzzFeed. Why is that a problem? Because Uber isn’t supposed to provide its drivers with formal training; doing so makes them bona fide employees, not independent contractors. [Source: BuzzFeed]

Flipboard users will now be able to collect articles and share them via private magazines visible only to members of certain groups. The feature is aimed at students working in the same class, companies sharing press coverage, and other groups that might want an easy way to share Web pages with each other without having to use public tools like Facebook or Twitter. [Source: Flipboard]

T-Mobile has tasked its customers with creating a real-world coverage map that makes it easier to tell where its service works and where it doesn’t. Instead of guessing at where its customers will get service — which is what other carriers do, the company claims — it’s asking people to verify its predictions so it can be more honest with consumers. [Source: T-Mobile]